She nodded. “Did you figure out what happened to the benzoylecgonine? Should I order more?”
Flashes of last night spent at some random club as Hyde discussed procuring the benzoylecgonine for his own gains came back to me. My hand shook as I reached for the tissue box. I grabbed a wad of tissues and wiped my perspiring face. In my distress over Catherine, I had forgotten about what Hyde did afterward. How he sold the most recent version of my formula to some gentleman criminal named The Count. I didn’t even know the man’s real name so there was no way to track him down. No way to warn him of the dangers of the formula.
I should report the security breach to my superiors at both the university and the military. I should, but I wouldn’t. To report it would cost me my research, my career, my life’s work, and worse… Catherine. If I didn’t have a lab, there would be no reason to see her each day. When before it was my research that gave me purpose, in a very short time, it had become the sound of her voice, the hint of a smile that teased her lips when she concentrated on reading something, the smell of her perfume, the way she hummed gently as she worked. Her very being.
I crumpled the wad of tissue in my fist and tossed it in the bin. “Yes, order the benzoylecgonine. I reviewed my research notes and realized I had used more of it for versions X3 and X4 than I had previously realized.”
Catherine moved to stand in front of the main laboratory table. “Perhaps today you could tell me more about your research? All I was really told was that it was top secret and something for Her Majesty’s Army.”
As she spoke, her hand glided toward my leather-bound personal research journal.
I launched across the room and slammed the cover shut. “Don’t touch that!”
Catherine’s eyes widened.
My hand froze on top of hers. If it weren’t preventing her from learning my greatest shame, we could almost be mistaken for two lovers clasping hands.
Her eyes filled with tears as her teeth worried her lower lip. “Is it… is it… because of—” She swallowed. “Is it because of what happened with your brother?”
Unable to resist, I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her close. I hugged her tightly for a moment before leaning back. I used one hand to cup her jaw. “I spoke too harshly. Forgive me. Yes, it is because of my… brother… Hyde.”
Her entire body shuddered within my grasp.
There was no fucking way I was going to confess to her that I was Hyde.
Instead, I lied. I looked deeply into the eyes of the woman I was fast falling in love with and lied straight to her face.
I consoled myself by thinking that it was more to assuage her embarrassment than to protect my own cowardly actions, but even I wasn’t convinced.
Her fingers played with a button on my tweed vest as she averted her eyes. “Henry, I can explain—”
Before she could continue, I rushed in. “My brother is a malcontent nuisance. I must apologize for him breaking into the lab last night. I hope he didn’t… I hope he didn’t… frighten you.”
She raised her confused gaze to mine.
Before she could correct my false assumption, I continued in a rush, “I want to thank you for your professionalism in not reporting him to security.”
Her fingers splayed wide across my chest. I hoped she wouldn’t feel the rapid beat of my heart and guess I was lying.
She licked her lips. It was hard not to remember the taste of those same lips as I pushed her against the wall and ruthlessly took as Hyde what I had so hesitantly asked permission for as Jekyll.
Her body tensed. “He told you he broke in? What else did he tell you?”
The ticking of the clock on the wall behind us was the only sound in the room for several seconds. Part of me wanted to blurt out the truth. Part of me wanted to know if she preferred my soft touch to the rough insistence of Hyde’s firm hand. There was also another part of me that wanted to know if she liked me spanking her with my belt as much as I’d enjoyed it. If she had felt the same rush of endorphins from such a taboo, elicit act as I had. The evil part of my soul brought out by the formula and Hyde wanted her to get down on her knees, unfasten my trousers, and take my cock into her mouth as she begged me to throw her over the lab table and fuck her senseless again.
My cock hardened. Unlike the last time, I was emboldened enough to keep my arm around her, my hips pressed to hers.
Her cheeks flushed.
I knew she felt my arousal.
I leaned down but hesitated, a breath away from her lips. “Nothing. What else should he have told me?”
Her eyelids fluttered as her gaze flitted from my eyes to my mouth and back. “Nothing.”
I hid my smile.
Liar.